Social media users all know the struggle of scrolling through the same five posts you saw an hour ago, over and over again. That’s the joy of an algorithmically-sorted feed but it’s not something you have to live with. Not on Twitter. Not any more. The company’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, has confirmed that they’re bringing back the chronological timeline.
The company said that it’s testing a button to display tweets by post time, instead of showing an algorithmically-picked feed. This will give users the ability to toggle between algorithmic and chronological. The power is in your hands now.
This feature is currently available to a small number of iOS users and all Twitter employees for testing. When it officially rolls out for the public, the button will appear on the top right corner of the feed. Clicking the button will toggle the feed view.
Sometimes you want to see the latest Tweets, first. We’re testing a way for you to make it easier to switch your timeline between the latest and top Tweets. Starting today, a small number of you will see this test on iOS. pic.twitter.com/7NHLDUjrIv
— X (@X) October 31, 2018
In 2016 when the service introduced the algorithmic timeline, the people were angered. Since then, users have been demanding the return of the chronological timeline, and unlike other social media platforms, Twitter has listened to its users. On this subject, at least.
Soon you’ll finally be able to follow stories without going directly to profiles, and see tweets that might’ve been filtered out by the Great Wall of Algorithmia. Once the feature gets broader reach, of course.